Ziegfeld Beauties: Hijacked By Hollywood

Florenz Ziegfeld, master showman of Broadway, hated Hollywood. No, it wasn't an east coast-west coast thing. It wasn't even  theater vs. film snobbery. He hated Hollywood (and the movies) because Flo, the great glorifier of the American girl, was constantly having his stable of lovelies stolen by the movies.

It wasn't so bad when movies were largely filmed in New York. At least the stage and the movies could share the young beauties (even if it meant they were a wee bit tired for the evening performance), but when the film industry finally made the big move out west, Ziggy guarded his flock with an eagle eye. Still, the lure of Hollywood proved too great and many of his choice glorified girls made the permanent move out west. Most simply came and went (while beautifying the scenery for a short while), but a few actually made the grade in motion pictures. The one thing they all had in common: their lives were full of drama and rarely ever dull! 

Olive Thomas (1894 - 1920)

Olive Thomas, model and beauty contest winner, was a Ziegfeld Girl who performed first in the regular Ziegfeld Follies and later in Ziegfeld's more risqué "Midnight Frolic." The "Midnight Frolic" was an after hours show staged on the roof of the New Amsterdam Theater and was naughtier than the regular Follies. As a performer in both shows, Ollie, as she was known, was showered with attention, jewels and furs from many wealthy admirers.

In 1918, Olive Thomas signed a motion picture contract and left Broadway. Known as a wild child in Hollywood, she was the very first film flapper and made many successful motion pictures.

Olive Thomas

Olive Thomas is best remembered today for her marriage to Jack Pickford (Mary's ne'er do well but utterly charming younger brother) and her subsequent scandalous death. In 1920, while vacationing and partying hard with her husband in Paris, Olive accidentally ingested mercury biochloride (prescribed for Jack's chronic syphilis) and died several days later. Pickford was heartbroken and would marry another Ziegfeld Follies Girl a few years later.

Mae Murray (1889-1965)

Mae Murray was a Follies Girl and nightclub performer who found great success in Hollywood. Known as "The Girl With The Bee-Stung Lips," Mae's biggest hit was "The Merry Widow" co-starring John Gilbert and directed by Erich Von Stroheim.

Mae lived the life a real Hollywood Movie Star. She was prone to melodramatic outbursts and married four times, the last time to "Prince" David Mdivani, an alleged Georgian nobleman who mismanaged her career and bilked her out of her fortune.

Mae Murray

The advent of talking pictures and bad career advice from the Prince did Mae in. After a few badly-received talkies, she spent the next years fighting for custody of her son, sustaining a humiliating legal defeat when sued by Hollywood fitness expert Sylvia of Hollywood for roughly $2,000 and performing on stage in a Gay 90's type reviews at Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe. Her refusal to acknowledge her age and insistence on heavy make-up and ill-fitting clothes only further served to tarnish her image.

Mae lived the last years of her life in poverty. At the height of her fame she and other Hollywood notables, including Douglas Fairbanks, C.B. De Mille, Jesse Lasky, Harold Lloyd and Irving Thalberg, were named members of the board of trustees of the Motion Picture Relief Fund (later the Motion Picture and Television Fund), a charitable organization designed to offer financial assistance to those industry veterans who were down on their luck. At the end of her life, Mae received assistance from that organization and died at age 75, a resident of the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland, CA.

It has often been suggested that Mae Murray was Billy Wilder's inspiration for Norma Desmond (she had oil wells pumping behind her home, and when commenting on yet another comeback attempt, said "Once a star, always a star!"). However, Mae's reaction to Wilder's film was "none of us floozies was that nuts!"

Billie Dove (1903 - 1997)

Billie Dove was an exquisite beauty who easily made the move from Follies Girl to Silver Screen Beauty. While her career started in silents, Billie Dove was able to make a smooth transition into talking pictures and was a very popular performer.

Billie Dove

Billie Dove was one of Ziegfled's least controversial and most luscious beauties. Her face and figure were always her fortune, landing her prime roles in such silents as "Polly of the Follies", "Kid Boots" and Fairbank's "The Black Pirate." She proved to be a hit in talking films, as well, and worked steadily until 1932. Following a long affair with and broken engagement to Howard Hughes, she married in 1933 and retired (while still very popular) to be with her family (her marriage lasted for 37 years until her husband's death). Billie was also a pilot, a poet and an artist. She, too, spent her last years in the Motion Picture Country Home.

Louise Brooks (1906 - 1985)

Louis Brooks is one of Ziegfeld's most famous beauties to make the leap from Follies Girl to Movie Star. Before Louise worked for Ziegfeld, she was a Denishawn Dancer as well as a performer in the George White Scandals. While working for Ziegfeld, Louise, who apparently had to beat the men off with a stick, was scooped up by Paramount and given the starlet rush.

Louise Brooks in her Follies Regalia

Louise was kept very busy in Hollywood, gradually getting better parts. However, she never took her work in movies seriously. Her two German films with GW Pabst, "Pandora's Box" and "Diary of a Lost Girl" have cemented her iconic fame. At the time, they were flops and Louise was too perverse, too proud and too much in love with alcohol and good times to take the many helping hands that were extended to her upon her return to Hollywood (she allegedly turned down the Jean Harlow role in "Public Enemy").

After a spectacularly successful youth, she endured a middle age of obscurity and limited funds, first in her home state of Kansas and then in New York City. Finally, it was in Rochester, NY, home of the Eastman-Kodak House, where, as a first-class writer on film, she was re-discovered and re-adored as  "The Girl With the Black Helmet," the bobbed Kansas beauty who, by way of Broadway and Berlin, became respected as an actress and keen observer of Hollywood.

Marilyn Miller (1898 - 1936)
Marilyn Miller was one of Ziegfeld's biggest stars. Not a Follies Girl, but a headliner and Broadway musical star and dancer supreme, her stage career was largely associated with Ziegfeld, starring for him in the 1918 and 1919 Follies. Her greatest success came in the Ziegfeld-produced Jerome Kern musical, "Sally." In the role she was know best for, she epitomized the Cinderella girl who "Looks For The Silver Lining." Marilyn had many offers to come to Hollywood in the 1920s, but she wisely refused them.

Off stage, Marilyn was known to have a way with salty language. In 1921, she lost her fist husband, dancer Frank Carter, in a car crash. In 1922, Marilyn Miller married Jack Pickford (widower of Olive Thomas). Able to spend time at her in-laws home, Pickfair, Marilyn had a chance to break into Hollywood in a big way, but still was not swayed. By all accounts it was not a happy union, and she and Jack divorced in 1927.

Marilyn Miller

Talking pictures finally lured Marilyn to Hollywood. She signed a contract with Warner Brothers (she and Jack Warner had a brief but stormy affair) and had a major hit with a screen version of "Sally." Another film version of her Broadways hit, "Sunny" followed and was also successful, but the tide turned quickly against musicals. After a third film that proved unsuccessful, Marilyn traveled east to Broadway, her true home.

Her personal life was filled with sadness and her final years were spent drinking too much and suffering from debilitating sinus infections. It was a botched sinus surgery that caused her early death in 1936 and age 37. Many year after her death, a young starlet's name was changed to evoke the blonde beauty of Marilyn Miller. Thus Norma Jean Baker was crowned Marilyn Monroe.

Other Ziegfeld Girls that had successful careers in Hollywood
While there are many others, here are a few of Florenz Ziegfeld others "Girls" who went on to glory on the silver screen  (and who seemed to master the over the shoulder come-hither look):

Marion Davies: WR Hearst got her away from Ziggy

Dorothy Mackaill: Successful in Silents & Sound

Mary Eaton: Groomed by Ziggy as Marilyn Miler's Replacement

Barbara Stanwyck: Did Her Time as a Follies Girl

Finally, the beautiful Jean Ackerman. She only had a few small roles in films, but she was so stunningly beautiful that I had to include her photo:

Jean Ackerman - Glorifying the American Girl

Flo Didn't Always Know
Astute as he was, Ziggy didn't always have a "cinematic" eye for beauty and let these applicants slip though his fingers: Norma Shearer, Lucille Ball, Joan Crawford and Eleanor Powell. They traveled west and seemed to do pretty well for themselves, in spite of the showman's rejection.

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Brunettes in a Blonde World: The Lost Diaries of Ann Dvorak and Miriam Cooper

The long lost diaries of two of old Hollywood's most alluring brunettes have been discovered! While Miriam Cooper worked in the teens and early 20s and Ann Dvorak worked primarily in the 1930s and 40s, both seemed to have struggled  against the rule of the Hollywood Blondes. Keep reading for a sneak peek at some of their most provocative inner thoughts. Remember - you read it here first!

Miriam Cooper

Dear Diary:

I am so excited to be working in motion pictures for Mr. D.W. Griffith. He thinks I am a very talented actress and will be using me in his pictures. As I look around me here at the Biograph Studio, I notice that most of the actresses who are getting the big parts (like Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish and Blanche Sweet) are all blondes. I hope that doesn't make a difference. MC

Dear Diary:

Mr Griffith has promised me some interesting parts, but he seems to be favoring the blondes. I hope this changes. I don't want to have to dye  my hair!

p.s. I hear we are travelling out to California to make pictures. Maybe the sun will lighten my hair! MC

Dear Diary: 

Mr. Griffith has given me a very nice role in his "Birth of a Nation." However, the showier roles are going to Lillian Gish and Mae Marsh. Need I say they are BLONDES? Really, what is wrong with men? A little yellow hair and they go nuts. I am not going to tolerate this too much longer. MC

Dear Diary:
Mr. Griffith is making a very big picture called "Intolerance" and I have a very important part. However, the girl I play is very bad and the cause of a lot of trouble. She is called "The Friendless One." I told Mr. Griffith I'd much rather play a nice girl, but he thought that my dark hair made a perfect choice to play a woman of questionable character and virtue. From what I can see, these blondes are not as virtuous off screen as on! MC

Dear Diary:

I have left Mr. Griffith and have married a wonderful director, Raoul Walsh (he likes brunettes!). I think he will go far! I would like to retire from pictures, but he wants me to help him make a movie of Longfellow's "Evalgeline." At first I refused, but when the studio sent a BLONDE actress to play a role so clearly defined as a BRUNETTE I just had to step in and agreed to star! These blondes are everywhere and even girls who were once brunettes are now blondes.I am glad I shall be retiring soon. I feel sorry for other brunette actresses coming up. Mary Pickford, Mary Miles Minter, Lillian Gish and Blanche Sweet have ruined it for us! I wish someone would ban hair bleach and then we'd all be equal! MC


Dear Diary: 
Although I am "retired," I still have to make occasional appearances on a movie set. Why? Because this hussy - Theda Bara - is making a play for my husband! And, knowing his attraction to brunettes, I have to be concerned. Really, does Theda have to  devour every man in sight? (And, I mght add, she looks as though as has devoured one too many). This is one time I wish a blonde was working with Raoul! MC

Ann Dvorak

Dear Diary:

After working in the chorus for years, I have finally been given some great parts at Warner Brothers.  There are several of those blondes (Jack Warner's squeeze, Marilyn Miller, and new kids Bette Davis, Joan Blondell and someone named Jean Harlow) nipping at my heels, but this brunette intends to stay one step ahead of them! By the way - do you think Joan's last name is really "Blondell"? Seems fishy.... AD

Dear Diary:

Still holding my own here at Warner's, though these blondes are getting more platinum by the day. The lighter the hair, the bigger that part, it seems. Harlow may have left the lot, but her hair remains behind. AD

Dear Diary:

Grrrrrr. If you are not a blonde, you are invisible in this town! Joan Crawford at MGM is now a platinum blonde, Bette Davis has been bleached right here and Paramount is throwing Mae West in our faces. I'm still fighting for bigger roles and think I have landed a good one: something called "The Strange Love of Molly Louvain." Can't wait to get started on it! AD

Dear Diary:

(Curse words crossed out). Look what they have done to me! What is it about the blonde hair that drives these men crazy? 

I am ready to quit! If you don't have hay growing out of your head, you're dead in this town. I wonder if Jean Harlow is a natural blonde. I wonder if anyone cares. AD


Dear Diary:
Well, it's been a few years since I left Hollywood in a snit, but I am back. They still have me in the service of the blondes (who the hell is Marie Windsor, any way?) Some things never change.

But, I do have a pretty good little part in a film called "A Life of Her Own" and guess who  the star is - that xx&^%#@# blonde, Lana Turner. I guess I'll just have to wipe the screen with her! AD

Editor's Note
Seems as though the Hollywood blondes were too much for both Miriam and Ann. Both had careers that were eclipsed by famous towheads.


Miriam had to combat the virtuous blondes:

Mary Pickford

Mary Miles Minter

Lillian Gish

Ann had it even tougher:


While the blondes of the 20s were good-girl types, once Jean Harlow hit the scene in the early 30s, every starlet who was reasonably fair was plucked and platinumed to take their place on the Harlow Hair Express:

Alice Faye

Bette Davis

Joan Crawford

Even Garbo was not spared!

And, of course, the one who caused all the ruckus in the 1930s:

"The Baby" herself

Form Harlow to Monroe, Kim Novak to Farrah Fawcett, Carole Lombard to Betty Grable,  Lana Turner to Grace Kelly and Veronica Lake to Julie Christie, still we brunettes ask: Just what is it about those blondes, anyway?




 

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Marlene Dietrich - In Her Own Words

"A Personal Biography"

A review of the new book "Marlene" by Charlotte Chandler. 

I approached "Marlene" by Charlotte Chandler with lots of preconceived notions about Marlene Dietrich. The positives: gorgeous, glamorous, tremendous star, great cook, good mother and war hero. The negatives: remote, superficial and maybe a tad self-involved. I had read her daughter's book, and was glad to learn she was a loving mother (as well as read about all of the juicy intimate details that were included), but I still wasn't 100% swayed into Marlene's camp.

"Marlene" reveals the legendary star as an older woman looking back on a fabulous life. Chandler had the opportunity to interview Marlene in her Paris apartment in the 1970s. She is mostly adorable: warm, funny, a little outrageous and as honest as she feels like being (which sometimes is not very honest at all). She understood her product, protected it, respected it and lived a life of glamor and depth. In her Paris apartment that she rarely left, she holds court and talks abut her favorite subject: Marlene Dietrich. And why not? No false modesty here. She was as delightfully enthralled by this glamorous creation as the rest of the world.


Chandler fills in the gaps with some biographic facts to keep the continuity going, but the book is largely Marlene in her own words, supported by reminisces by the many luminaries who adored her (and some who clearly did not). Some of Chandler's choice subjects include:
Leatrice Gilbert Fountain: The daughter of silent film idol John Gilbert, she paints a loving tribute to Marlene was a woman who not only brought happiness to her father's last days, but also treated his child with great kindness.
Bette Davis: Bette's great recollection of Marlene is of the time they spent working the Hollywood Canteen, a haven for servicemen during WWII and a place where they could get up close and personal with film stars. Bette's recollections of Marlene's cooking and willingness to get down on her hands and knees (always with a hairnet) to scrub floors are priceless.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.: Fantastic stories told by Doug, who was her lover for five years. Always a gentleman, he has many funny, sentimental and touching stories, all told first-hand to the author. His interviews are a real treasure.
Fritz Lang: Marlene's fellow German director of "Rancho Notorious" and not a fan.
Burt Bacharach: Fun tales from "On the Road With Marlene."

Some familiar territory is covered, such as her "unique" open marriage, her artistic relationship with Von Sternberg and the hand he had in the initial creation of the Dietrich image from "The Blue Angel" to their spectacular Hollywood collaborations, and the many love affairs with famous people (Jean Gabin, James Stewart, John Wayne to name a very few).


The book moves along at a good clip, letting Marlene tell the bulk of her story. She is most endearing when speaking about her happy childhood in Berlin (her mother's family ran an elegant jewelry store, so love of gems was in her blood), her love for her daughter, and her war effort.

Loved By the Allied Troops - And Who Can Blame Them?

Behind this glamorous creation, there was a very real woman. In her heyday, she never tried to hide this. Marlene was always upfront about having a child at a time when sexy movie stars were not supposed to be mothers. She sacrificed her 36 pieces of Hermes and Louis Vuitton luggage (but not the endless sets of dime-store fingernails) to pack light and entertain her beloved "boys" in uniform.


Much of Marlene's power and strength seems to have come from a childlike self confidence. She really seemed to believe she could do anything. The half-baked plot to kill Hitler while she is naked, related by Fairbanks, is a highlight. But when it came to the Nazis, her sympathies were in the right place. Her extraordinary effort on behalf of the Allied servicemen is well known, but, in her own words, she lets you know how near and dear it was to her heart and just how much it cost her to be reviled by her own countrymen as a traitor.


Because her image was so concentrated on an other worldly beauty and glamor, the aging process was especially difficult for Marlene. When movie offers no longer came, she carved out a second career as a highly successful nightclub chanteuse. Here the illusion was easier to maintain and no close-ups were required.

"The World's Most Glamorous Grandmother"

A real highlight of the book was the extensive interview with screenwriter Joshua Sinclair , who worked closely with Marlene on her last film appearance in 1978's "Just a Gigolo." This story is worth the price of the book. Told with great affection and admiration, Dietrich's swan song is documented with humor, pathos and respect.


Marlene was by no means a walk in the park. Her back-handed, passive-aggressive comments about her husband's lifelong mistress are eyebrow raising to say the least. She was the uber-female and embodied all of the maddening qualities that go with that.


Ultimately, I ended up feeling a little sad for Marlene Dietrich. Although an intelligent woman who made a tremendous amount of money, she wound up without the means to maintain her lifestyle in her old age. To her credit, she was incredibly generous to her friends and family. And, I must admit, her devotion to extravagance and quality simply because it was what she wanted, endears her to me. Mary Pickford once said "I think Oscar Wilde wrote a poem about a robin who loved a white rose. He loved it so much that he pierced his breast and let his heart's blood turn the white rose red. Maybe this sounds very sentimental, but for anybody who has loved a career as much as I've loved mine, there can be no short cuts."  It seems Marlene loved the Dietrich image and product too much, so much so that it cost her an engagement in life in her last years. But, she wasn't complaining. For her, the success, the luxury, the love affairs and the excitement had all been worth it. What was not worth it to her was to appear on the streets of Paris as an old woman no longer beautiful and have that photo splashed across the newspapers for all to remember. She wanted to be remembered as the movie star Marlene Dietrich, a goal she achieved.

I think I'll go watch a double feature of "Shanghai Express" and "Destry Rides Again" to enjoy the Marlene Dietrich its creator wanted us all to enjoy, admire, adore and applaud.


"Marlene" is available at on-line and real bookstores. I found it to be entertaining, well written, and had just enough new material to shed a new light on a very well documented, but endlessly fascinating, subject.

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Ann Sheridan: One Swell Gal

Fifth in a series about strong women in film. Strong women are independent, beautiful, sexy, feminine and just want everything in life that a man wants and believe that they have every right to have it!

Many great stars seem made of stardust, sent from the heavens to amuse the mere mortals. But not Ann Sheridan. Annie was a down to earth gal whose feet were firmly planted on the ground. She was one of the very few women in film that could stand toe to toe with James Cagney, look Bogey square in the eye and hold her own in a comedy with Cary Grant. She specialized in playing the hard-boiled type whose pedigree said "no papers," but no matter how shady the lady she played, you always knew, when it came to character, she was on the level.

Ann Sheridan was famously a glamor girl, but she endured because she was so much more. Warm, amusing and amused, she came up the hard way (well, at least the hard way for Hollywood). She was a real Warner Brothers "dame" and embodied all of the sass, swagger and heart that was the hallmark image of that studio in the 1930s and 1940s. There is no doubt that she was a "go to" gal and could do anything. Whether she was a glamor puss, waitress, gangster's moll, nightclub entertainer or down on her luck slum child, if you needed a loyal friend, no-nonsense intelligent advice or true, sincere love, Ann Sheridan was the one to call.

Search For Beauty, Cheesecake and OOMPH

Ann Sheridan came to Hollywood from Denton, Texas a winner of the Paramount Pictures "Search For Beauty" contest. Clara Lou Sheridan later became Ann and toiled in a series of small parts, all the while posing for lots of cheesecake. In the end, she was dropped by Paramount.

Young Clara Lou Sheridan

She had better luck at Warner Brothers. Notice how many strong women were developed by that studio? Working there must have required a steely nature, but it seems Jack Warner had an eye for a woman with spunk and a backbone. While rarely getting parts worthy of her Warner co-workers Davis, De Havilland and later, Crawford, Ann carved a niche of her own when it was discovered she had "oomph."

Oomph on a Bearskin Rug

Dreamed up by the Warner  Brothers' Publicity Department, "oomph" was a synonym for sex appeal, which they discovered Ann had quite a bit of. The name stuck and forever after, no matter how elevated her work, she was always know as "The Oomph Girl." Reportedly, she didn't care for the name, but accepted it as her lot in order to keep working and get better parts.

A Real Actress and a Comedy Player of Rare Sparkle

Her name Above the Title

Ann was usually singled out for praise no matter what type of role she was given. Although she never really made the top rank of great stars, she came pretty darn close. From sensitive drama to film noir to comedy, she always made the movie better because of her presence. When given a real chance to act, as in "Kings Row," she showed that she was up to the challenge.

She shined in gangster films, like "Angels With Dirty Faces," "They Made Me a Criminal," noir films like "Nora Prentiss" and "The Unfaithful," and showed her comedy skill in "I Was a Male War Bride" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner." No matter what the role, her warmth and intelligence alway came through.

Looking Good in a Snood - 1940s Glamor

Despite her starring roles and good performances, Ann Sheridan was first and foremost known as a glamor girl. She might have fought against it, but when you begin your career as a winner of a "Search for Beauty," and you happen to be lusciously beautiful, well, it's hard for people not to notice! Besides, Ann just looked great in those 40s fashion, especially the snood!

A Snood in the Boudoir  is Always a Hit!

A Snood For Daytime is Also a "Must"

A 1940s Beaver Fur Hat - For those Who Have a Point

Lucky Buttons

My favorite Ann Sheridan performance is Peg, James Cagney's ambitious girl friend in "City For Conquest." Cagney was her greatest co-star and she was his best leading lady. Both were believable and heartbreaking as the inner-city lovers who let the pressures of life and success come between them. 

Cagney and Sheridan: A Great Cinematic Team

I love Ann. She is the woman I would want to have for a best friend. More than her talent and beauty, it is the warmth and sincerity that she radiates that is so appealing. In film after film she proves that you can stand up to and take every knock this hard world throws your way and do it with grace, glamor and kindness. Ann Sheridan showed that you can be strong and never lose warmth, humor and humanity - the qualities that define a quality human being - male and female.

Top-Notch Oomph

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Is a Puzzlement... Little Movie Things That Keep Me Up At Night.....

As Yul Brynner says in "The King and I": 
Is a Puzzlement!

Now, I can suspend disbelief with the best of them. Audrey Hepburn falling in love with Humphrey Bogart in "Sabrina?" I got with the program. Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" sacrificing all for the obsession with Dorothy Comingore (Dorothy Comingore?)? I got over it. Dick Van Dyke as a cockney chimney sweep in "Mary Poppins"? I learned to love him. I am an obedient little movie goer and I can check my common sense at the box office for the sake of a good movie.

But there are just somethings that I can't stop thinking about, no matter how hard I try!

Things like:

Why do twins separated at birth and raised by different parents in different parts of the US in "The Parent Trap" both have British accents?

Let's Get Together Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

This film holds a special place in my heart. I wanted to be Hayley, I wanted Maureen O'Hara for a mom and I wanted to go horseback riding into the desert night with Brian Keith (and not come back until really late). The fact that both Hayleys (one reared in Boston, the other out west) speak like Brits does not detract from my enjoyment of the movie, but I just wondered why no one in the film mentions it! Is a puzzlement.

Why does Kim Novak have her shoes on when Jimmy Stewart fishes her out of San Francisco Bay after a fake suicide attempt in "Vertigo"?

Kim's Brand: Shoes That Never Leave Your Feet!

I think I have seen this movie more times than any other. Isn't it perfect to be obsessed with a movie about obsession? But it never ceases to annoy me that Kim has her shoes on when Jimmy carries her out of the bay. How did they stay on? I even tried this myself (not in San Francisco Bay, but in a decent body of water) and my Manolos went out to sea.  Jimmy's character is a detective. He should investigate! Indeed, is a puzzlement.

Why does Barbara Stanwyck return Fred MacMurray's hat in "Double Indemnity" when he clearly took it with him when he left her house?

Is that a hat, or are you just glad to see me?

This is the sequence of things: Insurance salesman Walter (Fred MacMurray) comes to Phyllis' (Barbara Stanwyck's) home to renew her hubby's car insurance policy. Hubby is out, but Phyllis, in a towel & anklet, is in. They flirt, Phyllis gets a bright idea, Walter gets hot, tells Phyllis he has her number is then shown the door. He picks up his hat and puts it on his head as he walks out the door. Later, there is a knock at Walter's door. Phyllis has delivered a forgotten hat to Walter at this home. She doesn't seem to have a hat, yet Walter tells her to put it on the chair. What is going on here? Is a puzzlement.

Why does everyone refer to Joan Fontaine in  "Suspicion," "Rebecca" and "Jane Eyre" as mousy and unattractive? Are they kidding?

I wonder if anyone can see my copy of "In Style"
 inside of this dreary book.

Typical of Hollywood to make beauteous Joan a plain Jane. Of course, in Hollywood, even plain people are beautiful. Real plain people are not allowed.

But really, how many times does Joan have to be called plain? First, by virtually everyone in "Rebecca." Next, the characters in "Suspicion" were none too kind, with Cary Grant calling her "Monkey Face." Orson Welles in "Jane Eyre" thought her quite mousy, too (although Olivier, Grant and Welles found her charming enough to pursue). Look at her! She's gorgeous! Yes, is a puzzlement.

In "Torrid Zone," Ann Sheridan leaps from a banana train, gets thrown in jail, sweats up a storm in the tropics and never once gets her white dress dirty. How does she do that?

Ann laughs because nothing Jimmy can throw at Ann
 can get her dress dirty (or maybe she is just laughing at that mustache?)

Ann is a down on her luck nightclub singer who somehow winds up on a tropical banana plantation. It is hot, it is dusty and not too sanitary. How does she manage to keep the same white outfit clean, pressed and immaculate (not to mention the hair and make up)? Indeed - is a puzzlement.

Now, maybe I am missing some things (it's been known to happen) or maybe key scenes were cut from the films' final versions. Anyway, I've been trying to come up with some plausible answers and I think maybe I have!

Possible Solutions:

Parent Trap: Hayley's Boston Grandmother (Cathleen Nesbitt) is British. She is also quite formidable and demanding. Is it possible that she commanded the twins to speak the King's English while in Maureen's womb?

Vertigo: Being that Kim's character was really a criminal, is it possible that she glued them to her hose so that, in the even she had to beat it, or worse- walk home if Jimmy didn't "save" her, she wouldn't lose her shoes? 

Double Indemnity: Phyllis D and Walter must have been talking in code. There was no hat, but Walter invites her in anyway. He might have been dumb, but he wasn't that dumb!

Joan Fontaine: All of these people who call her plain are really friends of Olivia De Havilland and are just plain jealous. A vast conspiracy, IMHO.

Torrid Zone: Annie was a smart shopper. Once she saw an outfit she liked, she bought multiple versions. As far as hair and makeup - well, she was just a natural beauty, no?

Since I love all of these movies - despite my petty nit-picking - I shall continue to overlook these little nagging questions and just sit back and enjoy the show. After all, if I were going to question EVERYTHING, well then, why doesn't Charles Foster Kane's mother, who allegedly loved him so much, ever see him after she gets the money? Did she run away with someone? And why do the bad guys in "North by Northwest"believe Cary Grant is Kaplan when all of the newspapers are calling him Thornhill? Don't they read the papers? And why are there no Arabs or Africans in "Casablanca"? And didn't I just say I was going to STOP asking these questions?

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